How many days can the decocted Chinese medicine be kept?

Many of my friends like to cook a lot of Chinese medicine at one time due to their busy work, and then pack it in professional plastic bags for storage. Then, when they drink it, they take out a portion and heat it up. This saves a lot of time. However, after long-term storage of Chinese medicinal materials, its efficacy may decrease, and it may also become moldy.

The sealed Chinese medicine should not be kept in the refrigerator for more than 7 days.

There are certain requirements for the decoction and storage of Chinese medicine. Generally, we put the cooked sealed medicine bags in the refrigerator for storage, but the storage time should not exceed 7 days. If you decoct the unsealed Chinese medicine yourself, it is best not to exceed 3 days.

Although traditional Chinese medicine is a very good treatment, many people do not know how to decoct the medicine, so they decoct it for others. The most common way to decoct the medicine for others is to use vacuum packaging, and the second is to use the utensils provided by the patient. You must know that it is very easy for your own utensils to deteriorate.

We found that the shelf life of liquid medicine indicated on the sealed vacuum packaging bags varied from hospital to hospital and pharmacy to pharmacy. There was a study that stored different prescriptions at different temperatures. The degree of deterioration of the medicinal juice was observed, and items such as odor, turbidity, mold and acidity were recorded. The results showed that the higher the temperature, the faster the medicine deteriorates. In seasons with higher temperatures, when the room temperature is above 25°C, the decoction can generally be stored for no more than 2 days. If refrigerated, it can generally be stored for 7 days without deterioration. In addition, even under the same conditions, the degree of deterioration of different prescriptions varies greatly. If the content of starch, protein, sugar and other ingredients in the medicine solution is high, it will deteriorate faster.

To ensure the safety of drug use, the optimal storage temperature for sealed vacuum-packed Chinese herbal decoctions is 0~5℃, and the storage time is 7~14 days, but it is best not to exceed 7 days. On the one hand, after the medicine soup is cooked, it is often kept at room temperature for half a day to a day before being refrigerated at home, which will "accelerate" the deterioration of the medicine soup; on the other hand, if the decocted medicine soup contains animal Chinese medicines such as scorpions and centipedes, or Chinese medicines with high sugar content such as cooked rehmannia and astragalus, it will also affect the shelf life. If you find that the medicine bag is bulging or the medicine tastes different, or there are bubbles or other abnormal phenomena, it is spoiled and should not be taken.

If you cook the Chinese medicine at home but do not use professional plastic bags to package it, it is best not to leave the medicine overnight. Even if you put the medicine in the refrigerator, it is best to drink it within 3 days. Long-term storage will cause the medicine to deteriorate and affect your health. In severe cases, it may even cause diarrhea.